Alleged murderer played role of ‘enforcer,’ D.A. says

DOWNTOWN L.A. — New court documents released in connection with the 2008 death of an aspiring Santa Monica model attempt to prove that a doctor hired the alleged murderer to intimidate the victim and others with whom he did business.

In the documents, prosecutors allege that both the suspected murderer, Kelly Soo Park, and her boyfriend, Ronnie Case, were process servers and debt collectors who used “scare tactics” to “obtain favorable results” for Dr. Munir Uwaydah, their employer.

It goes further to suggest that Park and Case went to the home of the victim, Juliana Redding, on the night of the murder at Uwaydah’s behest, days after a business deal between Uwaydah and Redding’s father, Greg Redding, went sour.

Redding (Photo courtesy DMV)

No charges have been filed against Uwaydah. He fled the country for Lebanon in 2010, according to the documents.

Both Case and Park stalked Juliana Redding in the days and hours before her murder, prosecutors say. Cell phone records indicate that both were at her apartment the night of the murder and the day before.

DNA evidence recovered from Redding’s neck, cell phone and the knob on a gas stove also linked to Park, according to court records.

Prosecutors allege that Park and Case regularly intimidated and harassed Uwaydah’s clients or business partners. A history of such activity would provide motive and intent for the attack on Redding.

The prosecution lists two other cases in which Park and Case went after people for Uwaydah.

The first, in 2008, allegedly took her across the country to shake down a man in Kentucky for $350,000 Uwaydah allegedly won in a court settlement.

The second allegedly occurred in 2010, prior to her arrest. In that situation, Uwaydah and Case were trying to take over Ventura County Business Bank by buying up stock certificates in an attempt to get a controlling block of the bank’s stock, prosecutors say.

According to the documents, both Park and Case intimidated the bank manager, Jerry Lukiewski, and, in items taken from Park’s home during a court-sanctioned search, police found handwritten notes and recordings to that effect.

In a recording, the defendant asked if “Ronny need[s] to choke some people,” the document says.

Park has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder. No trial date has been set.